Editing Symbolism (movement) (section)

===Visual arts===
{{See also|Symbolist painting}}
[[File:On the Edge of the Sea.jpg|thumb|[[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]], ''Jeunes Filles au Bord de la Mer'' ("Young Girls on the Edge of the Sea"), 1879, [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris]]

Symbolism in literature is distinct from symbolism in art although the two were similar in many aspects. In painting, symbolism can be seen as a revival of some mystical tendencies in the [[Romanticism|Romantic tradition]], and was close to the self-consciously morbid and private [[decadent movement]].

There were several rather dissimilar groups of Symbolist painters and visual artists, which included [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Gustave Moreau]], [[Gustav Klimt]], [[Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis]], [[Jacek Malczewski]], [[Odilon Redon]], [[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]], [[Henri Fantin-Latour]], [[Gaston Bussière]], [[Edvard Munch]], [[Fernand Khnopff]], [[Félicien Rops]], and [[Jan Toorop]]. Symbolism in painting was even more widespread geographically than symbolism in poetry, affecting [[Mikhail Vrubel]], [[Nicholas Roerich]], [[Victor Borisov-Musatov]], [[Martiros Saryan]], [[Mikhail Nesterov]], [[Léon Bakst]], [[Elena Gorokhova]] in Russia, as well as [[Frida Kahlo]] in Mexico,{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}} [[Elihu Vedder]], [[Remedios Varo]], [[Morris Graves]] and David Chetlahe Paladin in the United States. [[Auguste Rodin]] is sometimes considered a symbolist sculptor.

The symbolist painters used mythological and dream imagery. The symbols used by symbolism are not the familiar [[emblem]]s of mainstream [[iconography]] but intensely personal, private, obscure and ambiguous references. More a philosophy than an actual style of art, symbolism in painting influenced the contemporary [[Art Nouveau]] style and [[Les Nabis]].<ref name="ReferenceA" />